The feminist ethics of care literature has focused on care as a concrete issue that limits women's participation in pohtics, as well as on more abstract issues of the conceptual exclusion of women and 'the feminine' from justice-based theories. Whilst these are valuable contributions, the dominant focus on women in the care literature suggests a direct association of care with women. This has essentialist implications and leads to an oversimplified account that under-theorises the different ways in which care may be gendered.